The Continent of Lies

Galactic adventure/sleuthing, based on the well-worn idea of dreams packaged in edible form. Quinjin is an outspoken reviewer of dreams, vivid narrative hallucinations provided by "cephapples" derived from huge sentient trees. A worried Clee Selig, the cephapple's inventor, consults Quinjin over an anonymous dream that he dares not eat. Suitably fortified, Quinjin braves the unknown cephapple (which is entitled The Lier-in-Wait) - and barely escapes with his sanity: The-Lier-in-Wait, an exceptionally powerful evocation, drives those who imbibe it into an odious, mindless slavery to a monstrous, evil god named Goth. Horrified, Selig charges Quinjin with locating and destroying the tree whose fruits are The-Lier-in-Wait - a quest given particular urgency and poignancy when Quinjin's teenaged daughter Lilit unknowingly eats another Lief-in-Wait and becomes Goth's pathetic, mad slave. So Quinjin must not only destroy the tree and find a cure for poor Lilit, but also determine who and where Goth is. (He turns out to be an ex-student of Selig's with ambitions to enslave the galaxy.) The narrative is nicely balanced between wit and drama, with plenty of tongue-in-cheek commentary on sf in general. But, all in all: a half-absorbing, often predictable, rather disappointing follow-up to a very promising debut, The Wine of Violence (1981). (Kirkus Reviews)